Port, Casinos May Be on Collision Course

By Ryan Lafontaine, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

May 25–GULFPORT — In the next 20 years, international container shipments are expected to more than double and U.S. ports are scrambling to keep pace.

A recent boom in maritime shipping and plans to widen the Panama Canal are forcing changes at the state port of Gulfport, the third-busiest port along the Gulf of Mexico.

But some locals are concerned about what an expansion of the port might do to the Gulfport beachfront.

In the coming decade, port leaders hope to expand the property and double the container shipping.

The port’s preliminary plans show most of the 210-acre expansion is to the west, with a new shipping terminal and channel almost directly in front of the Island View Casino, which could block much of the view.

“Obviously, we’re not for that,” Island View owner Rick Carter said. “We plan to meet with (port leaders) and hopefully we can work with them on a good solution; we’d much rather them go south instead of west, that’s for sure.”

Millions of containers enter the United States every year through terminals in California, but port congestion and labor shortages in recent years have forced cargo ships to wait in long lines at major West Coast ports. Many vessels small enough to fit through the Panama Canal have been diverted into the Gulf of Mexico.

The future expansion of the Panama Canal would allow next-generation megaships to squeeze into the Gulf, drastically increasing business at Gulf Coast ports.

The Panama Canal can now handle ships carrying up to 4,000 containers, but a wider canal would accommodate a load of up to 10,000 containers.

“If you look at their 10- or 20-year histories, all of the ports in North America have been in a planning mode,” said Don Allee, the port’s executive director. “The… recent explosion (in trade) has certainly forced us to accelerate those plans.”

In addition to the Island View, the port’s expansion includes three new casinos and as many as 3,000 hotel rooms.

Carter said the Island View wants to be the port’s best tenant and Allee said the port has no plans of spoiling a “good relationship.”

“We’ve always managed to include the non-maritime businesses in our decision-making and we definitely don’t want to do anything that would harm their success,” Allee said. “They are our tenants, our customers, and we want to do whatever we can to make them happy.”

Experts have doubted whether casinos and cargo can coexist, but Allee said the concept has already been tested during a successful run with two casinos at the port before Katrina.

Along the Gulf, there is a frantic race among ports to gobble up land for growth. On the Coast, there’s also a race among casinos to rake in as much beachfront gaming property as possible.

The two worlds could be on a collision course in Gulfport, though for now, at least, Carter and Allee are willing to work together.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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